Systems Versioning: A Features-Based Meta-Modeling Approach

Authors: Ola A. Younis, Said Ghoul

Abstract:

Systems running these days are huge, complex and exist in many versions. Controlling these versions and tracking their changes became a very hard process as some versions are created using meaningless names or specifications. Many versions of a system are created with no clear difference between them. This leads to mismatching between a user’s request and the version he gets. In this paper, we present a system versions meta-modeling approach that produces versions based on system’s features. This model reduced the number of steps needed to configure a release and gave each version its unique specifications. This approach is applicable for systems that use features in its specification.

Keywords: Features, Meta-modeling, Semantic Modeling, SPL, VCS, Versioning.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1093305

References:

[1] Ba, M.L., A. Talel, and S. Pierre, Uncertain version control in open collaborative editing of tree-structured documents, in Proceedings of the 2013 ACM symposium on Document engineering. 2013, ACM: Florence, Italy.
[2] Bauml, J. and P. Brada. Automated Versioning in OSGi: A Mechanism for Component Software Consistency Guarantee. in Software Engineering and Advanced Applications, 2009. SEAA '09. 35th Euromicro Conference on. 2009.
[3] Gomez, V.U., S. Ducasse, and T. D'Hondt, Visually characterizing source code changes. Science of Computer Programming, 2013(0).
[4] Jiang, Z., How to give away software with successive versions. Decision Support Systems, 2010. 49(4): p. 430-441.
[5] Lindkvist, C., A. Stasis, and J. Whyte, Configuration Management in Complex Engineering Projects. Procedia CIRP, 2013. 11(0): p. 173-176.
[6] Rochkind, M.J., The source code control system. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 1975. 1(4): p. 364–370.
[7] Sink, E., Version Control by Example, ed. B. Finney. July 2011: Pyrenean Gold Press.
[8] Buchmann, T., A. Dotor, and B. Westfechtel, MOD2-SCM: A model-driven product line for software configuration management systems. Information and Software Technology, 2013. 55(3): p. 630-650.
[9] Jannik, L., et al., Supporting simultaneous versions for software evolution assessment. Science of computer programming 2011. 76(12): p. 1177-1193.
[10] Marc Novakouski, G.L., William A,nderson and Jeff Davenpor, Best Practices for Artifact Versioning in Service-Oriented Systems in SEI Administrative Agent T. Research, and System Solutions Program, Editor. 2012, Carnegie Mellon University.
[11] Laskey, K. Considerations for SOA Versioning. in Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Conference Workshops, 2008 12th. 2008.
[12] Ola Younis, S. Ghoul, and M. Al Omari, Systems variability modeling: A Textual model mixing class and feature concepts. International Journal of Computer Science & Information Technology (IJCSIT), 2013. 5(5): p. 127-139.
[13] Don, B., Feature models, grammars, and propositional formulas, in Proceedings of the 9th international conference on Software Product Lines. 2005, Springer-Verlag: Rennes, France.
[14] Kacper, B., Clafer: a unifed language for class and feature modeling. 2010.
[15] Sunkle, S.G.S., rbFeatures: Feature-oriented programming with Ruby. Science of Computer Programming, 2012. 77: p. 152-173.
[16] V. T Sarinho, A.L.A.E.S.d.A., OOFM - A feature modeling approach to implement MPLs and DSPLs, in EEE 13th International Conference on Information Reuse and Integration (IRI). 2012, IEEE.